Posts Tagged: "terrorist"

America is a leading exporter of not only weapons but also social media services and at least one major provider is finding itself caught in the crosshairs, so to speak. Menlo Park, CA-based Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has been singled out in the past for its role in serving as a platform where individuals can conduct illicit sales of firearms. In January 2016, the company announced that private gun sales would be banned on both the flagship social network as well as Instagram, although the ban did not apply to licensed gun dealers conducting sales off of Facebook. It doesn’t appear that those private gun sale bans have had much in the way of any actual effect, unfortunately.

The FBI is not asking for a backdoor to the Apple iOS. Apple says that the FBI wants Apple to create a new version of the iOS that has a backdoor that allows bypassing security on the devices. If true, this is a preposterous request and it would be illegal, so I don’t believe it’s the case. A new OS would not allow the terrorist phone to be hacked. In fact, it would have no effect whatsoever on any existing phone that already had an older, secure OS. This is more likely a red herring that Apple is using to garner publicity and show that it is protecting customers from the big, bad government.

Counterfeiting has exploded in the last decade or so, paralleling the growth of the Internet and online sales. It’s harder for counterfeiters to get their products into the supply chain headed for brick and mortar stores, but the Internet makes it possible for counterfeiters to bypass physical stores and flourish, as they’re hiding behind the anonymity of a website or an online marketplace. Counterfeit goods are much more likely to be available on ecommerce marketplaces—either on independent sites specifically set up to market fakes, or on platforms such as Taobao or AliExpress. Identifying and taking down these sites requires constant watchfulness and diligence.

Chinese legislators have attempted to enact anti-terror legislation purportedly designed to protect Chinese citizens against terrorist threats. In late December, China passed a law requiring both telecommunications and Internet companies operating in the country to provide decryption, technical interfaces and other assistance to public and state security organizations to conduct investigations of potential terrorist activities. The tech sector has misgivings about Chinese regulations that would force the handing over of sensitive data. Imagine a leak of encryption keys leading Chinese hackers to degrade performance of a foreign tech provider, all in the name of promoting indigenous innovation. That’s a pretty extreme scenario, but one that’s not completely unimaginable considering recent cybersecurity headlines.

From tech developers trying to take a stand against tech-savvy terrorists to a pair of highly anticipated initial public offerings of stock for tech start-ups, there’s been plenty of news to cover in recent days. We also take a little time to explore research at an American university which has led to the world’s first-ever “freeze ray” laser technology.

Facial recognition technologies often raise privacy concerns, but as it becomes more reliable and accurate it can also identify suspicious persons before they are able to execute an attack. Research taking place at Old Dominion is also leading to better prototypes for facial recognition technologies that can recognize terrorists before they enter the country. A project funded by the DoD has been looking into ways to improve facial recognition technologies for use at vulnerable locations like airports and sports stadiums.

Given all of these issues with these conventional bomb detection methods, what are the innovations being developed in response? One Israeli explosive detection tech developer, Tracense Systems, has developed a biosensor nanotechnology which mimics the way dogs can sense explosives through smell and reportedly outperforms canine bomb detectors. The University of California, Berkeley, has also contributed to research and development in nanotechnology fields for detecting bombs. Mechanical engineering researchers have created a light-based plasmon sensor capable of detecting chemical traces up to 0.4 parts per billion. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have innovated a bomb sensor system which utilizes the properties of proteins found in bee venom.